Hanging tough not so easy for Rory

Champion needs to take page from patient McDowell’s US Open play book.

When you live in comfort week in and week out, it’s not easy to rough it, even for four days.

When you’re given the green light to attack each hole location and you subscribe to a philosophy that says you must make birdies, it takes immense self-restraint to reel it back and embrace a different mindset.

When you’re Rory McIlroy come US Open week, you need to bin what works for you 51 weeks a year and embrace a mantra that is employed by countryman Graeme McDowell.

Within a 20-minute span late Thursday at the Olympic Club, the best mates completed their opening rounds of the 112th US Open and disappeared into a clubhouse room to sign their scorecards. McDowell came out with a smile and distinctive perspective; McIlroy... well, he wasn’t really seen and he wasn’t really heard, though a few quotes mysteriously appeared a short time later.

Safe to say their scores had a lot to do with it — McDowell having authored an effective one-under 69 to get into a share of second, McIlroy having made one lone birdie against eight bogeys for 77. Understandable that McIlroy, No 2 in the world and the reigning champion, would be shell-shocked to the point of being so quiet, though it goes against the very nature of why he has been universally embraced by golf fans everywhere, especially in the United States.

McIlroy has been refreshingly open and honest with the golf media, so it was disconcerting to some to see the way in which he seemed to retreat after such a miserable day.

We’re not suggesting McIlroy had an obligation to follow that tournament-ending 77 with a stand-up comedy routine or even regale the press with tales of horror. But there is a suspicion that this US Open business makes him uncomfortable and he might be well-served to take a page from McDowell’s game plan.

True, McIlroy a year ago won this event, but an asterisk need be applied. That was not a true US Open, where firm, fast fairways and granite greens usually greet players. Instead, a saturated golf course gave players something they get most every week on the tours in the US and Europe — velcro greens in which you had one thought and one thought only: attack.

McIlroy did so to the tune of 16 under, which is hardly the sort of number that appears on US Open leaderboards. Instead, this championship is a grind, the kind which mandates you scale back your expectations and strap in for pars and bogeys, not birdies and eagles. USGA officials set out to frustrate you, to take you out of your comfort zone and McIlroy clearly let them win the battle on Thursday, just as he did in 2010 at Pebble Beach when he shot 75-77 and missed the cut.

He was not alone, however, because Masters champ Bubba Watson shot 78, Phil Mickelson and Adam Scott signed for 76s, and Louis Oosthuizen 77, and none of them would testify that they maintained composure and remembered the credo about course management.

That’s not a subject they need to care about most weeks of the year, but it is come US Open time, where the style of play is unpleasing to the eye, perhaps, but it sure appeals to some.

McDowell, for instance.

“I’ve always enjoyed the US Open set-ups. Itreally rewards placement off the tee, just hanging tough, staying patient, placing your iron shots, chipping, putting,” McDowell said. “Really, it’s golf’s toughest test.”

Heroic that he may have been to so many golf fans, Arnold Palmer never grasped that gruelling aspect to the US Open, not like his arch rival Jack Nicklaus. Palmer’s aggressive nature explains why he won just one of these, whereas Nicklaus’ methodical, conservative personality shined forth to the tune of four victories.

One gets a sense that McIlroy is like Palmer and while that endears him to fans and suits him competitively most weeks, it could behoove him to learn how to be more patient come the US Open and those rare weeks during the season (the Players Championship at TPC Sawgrass and the BMW PGA Championship at Wentworth) when a conservative mode would pay off.

In other words, be more like McDowell, who sounds like he doesn’t mind sticking needles in his eyes — which is how some players see this US Open business.

“It’s a grind out there,” McDowell said. “You’ve just got to hang tough.”

Easier said than done. Just ask McIlroy.